LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



was allowed thirteen shillings a day for his trouble and travelling 

 expenses. Another was Lord Chancellor of England, and preferred 

 to lose his head rather than sacrifice his conscience. Another was 

 Master of the Horse, and was deprived both of his commission and 

 his estate* on the same account as the former. His descendants 

 seemed determined to perpetuate their claim to the soil; for they 

 sent a bailiff once in every seven years to dig up a sod on the terri- 

 tory. I was the first to discontinue this septennial act, seeing law 

 and length of time against us. 



" Up to the reign of Henry VIII. things had gone on swimmingly 

 for the Watertons ; and it does not appear that any of them had ever 

 been in disgrace : 



' Neque in his quisquam damnatus et exsul.' 



But, during the sway of that ferocious brute, there was a sad reverse 

 of fortune : 



' Ex illo fluere, ac retro sublapsa referri, 

 Spes Danaum.' 



' From thence the tide of fortune left their shore, 

 And ebbed much faster than it flowed before.' 



The cause of our disasters was briefly this : The King fell scanda-' 

 lously in love with a buxom lass, and he wished to make her his 

 lawful wife, notwithstanding that his most virtuous Queen was still 

 alive. Having applied to the head of the Church for a divorce, his 

 request was not complied with ; although Martin Luther, the apostate 

 friar and creed-reformer, had allowed the Margrave of Hesse to have 

 two wives at one and the same time. Upon this refusal, our royal 

 goat became exceedingly mischievous : ' Audax omnia perpeti ruit 

 per vetitum nefas? Having caused himself to be made head of the 

 Church, he suppressed all the monasteries, and squandered their 

 revenues amongst gamesters, harlots, mountebanks, and apostates. 

 The poor, by his villanies, were reduced to great misery, and they 

 took to evil ways in order to keep body and soul together. During 

 this merciless reign, 72,000 of them were hanged for thieving. 



* Methley Park was his seat. [Eo.] 



